BEERSHEBA 100TH ANNIVERSARY

Commemorating the ANZAC achievements of the Palestinian Campaign 1916-1918

At 4pm on October 31, 1917 Beersheba lay 6 km across an open plain protected by 4,000 entrenched Turks with guns, artillery and German planes. Now daylight was fading and the weary, thirsty troops desperately needed to capture the town’s abundant water wells. 800 Light Horsemen lined up for a do-or-die charge.

The ANZAC soldiers’ successes in the World War 1 Palestinian Campaign remain largely unknown, overshadowed by the lives lost at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. This website hopes to change this. The victory at Beersheba was one of the pivotal events that turned the tide of history for the Middle East. The daring and adventurous spirit of the ANZACs brought the breakthrough that ultimately defeated the same Turkish armies that had annihilated them in Gallipoli.

The call is going forth for the nation to commemorate the centenary of the Middle Eastern Campaign from the Suez to Aleppo through 2016-2018, especially the heroic Beersheba charge. The courage, sacrifice, endurance and mateship of the ANZACs helped them overcome impossible odds to pull off unprecedented victories.